Indian men’s Skeet team fetches bronze at Asian Championship Shotgun

Astana, Aug 12 (IANS) Shooter Sheeraz Sheikh narrowly missed out on an individual medal even as the mens Skeet team comprising Sheeraz, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa settled for the bronze medal on day six of the 7th Asian Championship Shotgun at the Target Shooting Club here on Saturday.

With the bronze, India’s medal tally shot up to 7 in the competition.

The Indian trio of Sheeraz, Mairaj and Angad shot a combined score of 347 out of a possible 375 to finish behind hosts Kazakhstan who won silver with a combined effort of 350.

Team Kuwait won the gold finishing with an identical score of 350, but edged out the hosts on better finishing round scores.

At the end of the first day of qualification in the men’s Skeet on Friday, Mairaj and Sheeraz were placed 9th and 10th respectively on identical scores of 69 out of 75 targets. Angad Bajwa was in 23rd place with 64.

On Saturday, with two more rounds of qualification left, all three shot one perfect round of 25 each.

Sheeraz and Mairaj also had an additional round of 24 to finish on 118. Three other shooters finished on the same score to go into a shoot-off to determine four finalists.

Saif Bin Futtais of the UAE and Mansour Al Rashedi of Kuwait ended on 119 to secure the first two spots out of six.

Mairaj lost out in the tight shoot-off missing his eighth shot, while four others including Sheeraz, Ali Doosti of Iran, Makoto Yokouchi of Japan and Alexandr Yechshenko of Kazakhstan were on target in the first eight.

Meanwhile Angad’s score of 25 and 22 on the day saw him improve his position and end in 18th spot.

In the final, Sheeraz survived the first phase where Mansour of Kuwait was eliminated in sixth place. In the second phase, Doosti was eliminated in fifth place on a score of 24. Sheeraz went on to score 33, but bowed out in fourth place.

Bin Futtais of the UAE eventually won the gold with a score of 53 in the final, followed by Yechshenko of Kazakhstan (49) to clinch the silver. Japan’s Yokouchi settled for the bronze finishing on 41.

The competitions of the 7th Asian Championship Shotgun will conclude on Sunday with the mixed team Skeet event.